Loizaga Tower, one of the largest collections of Rolls Royce cars in the world.
Concejuelo Castle in Loizaga Tower, Galdames (Bizkaia), just 40 minutes from the center of Bilbao, is the setting in which 45 units form one of the best collections of Rolls-Royces in Europe and one of the 5 best in the world. The British brand, synonymous with greatness and quality in the automotive sector, has in Galdames 45 vehicles in working order and in perfect condition, which is not easy to say considering that many of these jewels are from the early twentieth century.
Rolls-Royce Anagram
This Rolls-Royce collection is unique in many aspects, for its excellent condition, for its location, for the number of vehicles… but we want to highlight the one that for us is the most important: the collection of the Loizaga Tower has all the models manufactured from the beginning of Roll-Royce until the day BMW bought the British firm in the 90s. We must keep in mind that this type of vehicles were created for upper class people who had a chauffeur 24 hours a day. The cars of that time, were not as easy to drive, nor to fix as today, which is why the Rolls-Royce brand professionalized the work of the chauffeur by creating a school. This school taught notions of maintenance, mechanics, maneuverability, safety, first aid, etiquette and special driving exercises in adverse conditions.
Rolls-Royce front end
The Loizaga Tower is known worldwide for its collection of Rolls-Royces, but we must not forget the other 30 vehicles that are not Rolls-Royces but make up the spectacular collection of Miguel de la Vía-CMV. Miguel de la Vía, a Biscayan businessman with a great passion for automobiles, not only created from nothing one of the best Rolls-Royce collections in the world, but also restored and opened to the public the Loizaga Tower, one of the historic buildings of the municipality of Galdames.
3 reasons to visit the Loizaga Tower.
–A privileged environment: Located in the region of the encartaciones, the Loizaga tower has neighbors of high tourist and cultural value. In this region we can find important places such as:
- Pozalagua Cave (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
- El Pobal Ironworks (Muskiz), in this 16th century workshop we will see how iron was worked at that time.
- Museum of Basque berets La Encartada: Located in Balmaseda, this museum will show us everything related to the “txapelas”.
- Karpin adventure: Karpin offers us the opportunity to enjoy all kinds of animals.
- Mining Museum of the Basque Country: Discover the Basque mining sector in an enclave with a lot of history.
These are just some of the most interesting sites of the encartaciones but they have many more, such as the promenade that links Kobaron with Pobeña, or the Meaztegi golf course.
–A unique architecture: The Loizaga tower bases its foundations on the old defense tower of the Ochoa García de Loyzaga family destroyed in the 14th century by rival factions. The Loizaga tower and its surroundings will make our stay in this museum of classics a luxury.
Loizaga tower environment
–The largest collection of Rolls-Royce cars in Europe: We leave for the end the most important reason why you should visit the Loizaga Tower, the cars. The Loizaga Tower has 75 vehicles that together with its medieval-looking environment will take us back in time.
Turismovasco.com on the red carpet of the loizaga tower
We would like you to notice that each of the bodies of the 45 Rolls-Royces that you will see, all of them from different manufacturers, this is because the first vehicles only had the chassis and engine, leaving the work of creating a quality body to the more than 10 artisan workshops of the time. Another of the many things that captivated us were the thousand details that the museum had in general, such as the period furniture that we will find throughout the tour.
Period furniture along the route of the loizaga tower
Miguel de la Vía was accompanied by Ángel Durán in the task of putting together the largest collection of Rolls-Royce cars in Europe. Ángel Durán cleaned, prepared and arranged each of the 75 cars that make up the collection in the Loizaga tower. Today, this task falls to José Ángel Durán, Ángel’s son, who with the same commitment and dedication as his father keeps the collection in perfect condition.
During the visit we had the opportunity to interview David Durán, third generation of this family dedicated in soul and life to the collection of the Loizaga Tower, in this talk he told us how at the early age of 7 years he began his career among the Rolls-Royce. At the age of 7, David began to accompany his father in the maintenance of the cars and today, with more than 13 years of experience, he is the perfect substitute for his father. When we ask him about the most spectacular Rolls-Royce interiors, he doesn’t think twice and accompanies us to pavilions number 5 and 6, home of the great Rolls-Royce Phanton IV and Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost respectively.
Phantom VI interior
If you are not a fan of motoring, don’t worry, you don’t have to know anything about cars to enjoy the beauty of these specimens. On the contrary, if you are a fan of motoring …., what are you doing reading these lines? You should be taking your car to enjoy the roads that will take you to the Loizaga Tower, a temple for motor lovers.
The Loizaga Tower is open on Sundays and state holidays from 10 am to 3 pm. Prices range from 7 € for adults and 4 € for children between 12 and 18 years and retirees (Children under 12 years do not pay admission).
Loizaga Tower Tickets
We leave the data of the Loizaga tower on google maps, so you can get there without any problem, remember that the last stretch of the road is a very narrow section, the beginning of this section you can identify thanks to the Roman bridge that we will cross before starting to climb to the tower of Loizaga:
Loizaga Tower Signage
Roman bridge, Loizaga tower access
As a summary of this article of the loizaga tower, we can say that it is much more than an exhibition of classic cars, for us it is undoubtedly the great unknown of tourism in the Basque country. 100% recommendable.
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